


Everything Makes Sense

by Dogsocks



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, I love the second years, I'll probably add more tags as I go, POV Alternating, Saeko is a good sister, Tags Are Hard, Tanaka has type 1 diabetes, the first years are all super oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-17 02:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8126389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dogsocks/pseuds/Dogsocks
Summary: An AU/Headcanon where Tanaka has Type 1 diabetes and the stories of how a bunch of people find out.





	1. The Hard Way

**Author's Note:**

> So, my sibling had this idea a while back and we both kind of ran with it. I know some people with type one and I did a crap ton of research, but if there are any inaccuracies I apologize. This isn't really about ships or anything, but I'm sure you could find some if you really looked. There's going to be five chapters, each from the point of view of someone different, so here we go. Hope you enjoy!

It's morning, and as far as Tsukishima is concerned, way too early to be awake and functioning, let alone getting ready for morning practice. He's almost done changing when he hears someone storm through the locker room door. Whoever it is, they're more than a little late, especially considering Tsukishima is generally one of the last ones in here in the mornings, and even he's almost done by now.

"Sorry I'm late," someone grumbles, sounding more than just a little annoyed. Tsukishima doesn't bother looking, but he knows just from the voice it's Tanaka. Tsukishima really should've guessed as much anyways since he's the only one who can ever be late without immediately getting scolded for it, for some reason. It's irritating.

"This morning sucks, and you wanna know why?" Tanaka continues to someone else who must still be in the locker room, because he's nowhere near Tsukishima and if somehow Tanaka thinks he's actually listening, he's sadly mistaken. It's clearly the beginnings of a frustrated rant that Tsukishima has no interest in.

"Not really," Suga's warm voice replies with a chuckle. "But, I'll humor you. What happened?"

"Well to start off this wonderful day I'm having, my alarm didn't go off. So, I was harshly awoken to the sight of Saeko yelling about me being late from my doorway. That was about five minutes before she left the house, which is about ten minutes after I usually leave," Tanaka rants, annoyance clear in his voice, accompanied by the distant sounds of rustling fabric and locker doors.

Tsukishima is finally heading towards the gym, relieved at the relative silence for a second before the conversation follows him.

"So, I also had to change my thing today, and that went fucking great. The first time I think I hit a nerve or muscle or something, which is _not_ fun, and the second time I hit a vein and got a nice bruise. Then, I decided to just use my back today instead of my stomach like I was trying to, and at least that one worked. I still ruined two and wasted a ton of time." 

Tsukishima wasn't really paying a whole lot of attention before this, but he can't say that it doesn't make him curious about what they're talking about. It's a little irritating how vague it was, considering that makes it even harder to figure out without actually having to ask, and he's sure as hell not gonna ask. But really, it's far too early to be thinking this hard about something that doesn't even concern him. He ignores it for now, the endless chatter behind him not making it any easier to think anyways.

"Then I had to rush to get out of the damn house so I wasn't as late, I had to skip breakfast, and I-" Tanaka is suddenly cut off by his own shout, presumably because Suga hit him at this point, scolding him shortly after for skipping breakfast.

" _Anyways_ ," Tanaka starts once Suga's satisfied, continuing his story. Tsukishima finally makes it to the gym after a span of time that seems way longer than it usually does. He pushes open the gym door a little more forcefully than he means to, in retrospect. 

Hinata says something about him being grumpy as he walks in, Tanaka continues to ramble angrily about his morning, but Tsukishima ignores both conversations in favor of finding a nice quiet spot to put his shoes on in peace. 

Of course, the silence doesn't last long and Tsukishima is left once again to wonder why he chooses to surround himself with so many people whose only goal seems to be unknowingly getting under Tsukishima's skin at every turn. He heaves out a long sigh as Hinata and Kageyama argue loudly about something trivial while Tanaka still continues to rant beside him. Honestly, it must have been a rough morning if he's still talking about it.

"So I ended up running here so I wouldn't be late," Tanaka rambles on, "And I was still late anyways, and I checked and I'm getting low, and everything is terrible."

Suga sighs once Tanaka finishes and grumbles something before hitting him and jogging out of the gym. Tsukishima has half a mind to wonder about the way Tanaka phrased some things he said or what Suga had said before he left, or even _why_ he left, but he easily gives up on this thought when Yamaguchi walks over and starts an idle, mostly one sided conversation.

He's almost completely forgotten about it when there's a sudden shout from Tanaka beside him, startling Tsukishima out of his bored calm. It's quickly followed by Tanaka yelling at Suga for throwing a juice box at his head, to which Suga responds by tossing a granola bar at him and telling him not to skip breakfast next time.

Then, Ukai calls for practice to start, though no one says a word when Tanaka sits out for a few minutes to hastily eat his granola bar and practically inhale the juice box.

 

The first incident with the juice box didn't really seem that weird until it happened almost the same way a few more times. Usually Tanaka would just seem snappy, like maybe he isn't a morning person, which Tsukishima can't really blame him for if it is just that. But it isn't always in the morning. Sometimes it happens during afternoon practice.

Regardless of what time Tanaka gets like that, at a certain point some upperclassman will always wordlessly throw a juice box at him, like that's some kind of normal thing to do.

On top of all that, Tsukishima has overheard more than a few conversations involving Tanaka with the same vague wording or phrases and no context that Tsukishima can use to figure out what the hell everyone is talking about. 

There's something everyone seems to know about, coaches included, and Tsukishima has no idea if he's somehow supposed to know what they're talking about or not. It seems like he _should_ know what all of this is about with the way everyone talks about it, though it doesn't seem like any of the other first years know either. Whenever something weird happens or is said, usually Hinata is somewhere near by looking confused and Kageyama is yelling at him to mind his own business.

Either Tsukishima is seriously missing something, or everyone in this club is somehow even weirder than he had first thought.

 

Tsukishima leans heavily on one of his hands as he picks lazily at the bowl of food in front of him. Yamaguchi is talking to his left and he's mostly listening, though he knows that Yamaguchi doesn't expect an answer from him anyways.

Training camps always require way more energy than Tsukishima has to give. He honestly doesn't know how everybody has this abundance of energy to go all out during training, and then half of them just keep on practicing when it's over. It's exhausting just to watch, and even now that everyone is finally wandering into the kitchen to eat, they're still lively and loud like they weren't just at hours of grueling practice.

At some point, his attention is inadvertently drawn to some of the loudest of the bunch as they make their way to a table nearby. Tanaka and Nishinoya sit down with their plates full of food, already deep in some conversation that Tsukishima couldn't care less about right now. 

He's about to direct his attention back to his food when he notices Tanaka looking down at his lap, like he's on his phone or something. It seems a little weird that he'd be so blatantly on his phone while trying to have a conversation with Noya, but then again it really isn't any of his business. 

Thinking about it now though, Tsukishima has actually seen Tanaka do the same thing before he ate at a restaurant a few times when the team had dragged them all out to get food together. But again, Tsukishima couldn't actually see what he was doing behind the table. It seemed kind of rude to be on your phone at the table, but no one else seemed to mind it, or maybe they just didn't notice at all. 

Maybe it is something else, but Tsukishima can’t really think of what else he could be doing. It’s frustrating that he’s even spending this long thinking about it. It’s probably nothing anyways.

Whatever it is, Tanaka puts it in his back pocket and puts something else on the seat beside him before he starts eating and continues his conversation without missing a beat. Tsukishima goes back to his own food, giving up on the thought before it hits him.

Tsukishima is honestly a little mad at himself for not figuring it out sooner. If he's right, then all the weird things he's noticed regarding Tanaka from the past few weeks actually make perfect sense.

Apparently he must be making some kind of weird face or something, or maybe it's the fact that he's stopped eating to stare at Tanaka that makes Yamaguchi give him the questioning look on his face now.

"What?" Yamaguchi finally asks, looking between Tsukishima and Tanaka.

"I think Tanaka is diabetic," Tsukishima replies flatly, finally going back to his food.

"Oh. Yeah," Yamaguchi confirms casually. Tsukishima can't help the surprised look on his face and Yamaguchi visibly shrinks away from it. "What, you didn't know that?" he asks, returning to his own meal.

"And you did?" Tsukishima replies instead of answering, because obviously no, he did not know until now. He's actually a little annoyed that Yamaguchi knew first, yet oddly flattered that he assumed Tsukishima had already figured it out. How could he have possibly figured it out before him though? "How did you know?"

Yamaguchi shrugs. "I just asked Daichi."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I like to post a new chapter every day because I'm very impatient, so I will be back tomorrow with chapter two! Thanks for reading and to anyone who leaves kudos or comments and all that good stuff!


	2. The Easy Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yamaguchi hadn't really even noticed all the weird things about Tanaka until he had noticed Tsukishima noticing them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually like to write longer chapters than this, but whatever. This is just supposed to be a quick little thing. Anyways, this is Yamaguchi's chapter, hope you enjoy!

Yamaguchi hadn't really even noticed all the weird things about Tanaka until he had noticed Tsukishima noticing them. He would catch a glimpse of Tsukishima's looking at Tanaka, which admittedly to everyone else probably just looked like his normal bored expression. But Yamaguchi can always tell when Tsukishima is thinking about something, can practically see the gears turning in his head.

So, he would direct his gaze to whatever Tsukishima was questioning and it would always be someone throwing a juice box at Tanaka, or Tanaka messing with something under his shirt that Yamaguchi could never quite see, or Tanaka stepping out of the gym for a minute.

There were also times when Tsukishima would get the same faint look of confusion on his face, but a little less focused, like he was listening to something besides Yamaguchi's nervous ramblings and tuning out everything else to give it his full attention.

At these times, Yamaguchi would usually just stop talking, to which Tsukishima wouldn't even seem to notice, confirming his suspicions that he was listening to something else. So, Yamaguchi would listen in to see what he was hearing, and almost every time there was a conversation nearby that Tanaka was either part of or the subject of the conversation.

Then, Yamaguchi would usually hear things that were just as confusing as the almost undetectable crease between Tsukishima's brows was letting on. It wasn't anything majorly suspicious, just small things that didn't make sense for some reason, like phrases he didn't understand. He felt like he _should_ understand, with how casually everyone threw them into their sentences, like it was normal.

It was confusing, and as hard as Yamaguchi has tried to make sense of it all, he really can't. It feels like there's something everyone is keeping from him, though he knows that isn't the case. He tries to ignore it for the most part so it doesn't bother him so much.

But, that doesn’t really work. It just doesn’t make any sense. What on earth is everyone always talking about and why does it bother him so much that he doesn't know? He could always just ask Tanaka himself, but he hasn't known him that long to begin with. 

Honestly, the idea of confronting someone like Tanaka about something that Yamaguchi isn't even sure _is_ anything at all, isn't something he considers for very long. What if it's all in his head and he's just thinking too hard? Or what if it's personal, or he offends him or something? 

So he decides to just ignore it, pretend to be one of the people who knows about this weird thing that everyone talks about but nobody _talks_ about. Obviously though, this doesn't last forever. It’s probably something trivial, but nevertheless, it eats at him endlessly.

He's standing in the gym one day, waiting for Tsukishima to show up before afternoon practice actually begins like he does every day. He's just standing there, trying his best to look at least a little less awkward than he feels without Tsukishima here to talk to. 

It's not really that he's eavesdropping, but when you're standing around without listening to anything in particular, your ears find other things to tune in to. It's nothing that he shouldn't have heard, it just wasn't directed at him.

"Shit, you're right. I think I left my stuff in the locker room though. Ugh, I have to go all the way back. I'll be right back," Tanaka says to Nishinoya, who nods as Tanaka turns and jogs out of the gym. It's not that weird really, but it's another one of those things that just leaves Yamaguchi wondering what they're talking about, and with nothing else to occupy his time with, he just thinks about it.

Though, he may have been thinking too hard because he almost doesn't notice when Daichi shows up by his side all of a sudden, looking at him with an expectant patience like he's probably already asked his question.

"Sorry, what?" Yamaguchi asks fidgeting absentmindedly with his hands.

"I asked if you've seen where Tanaka went. I need to tell him something and I can't find him," Daichi repeats, glancing around like Tanaka might appear suddenly.

"Um yeah actually," Yamaguchi answers quickly. "He left. I don't actually know what he was doing, sorry. I think he said something about getting something from the locker room? But he also said he'd be right back, if that helps at all."

"Ah, okay," Daichi says easily, like this clears everything up. "Alright, I'll talk to him when he gets back then, thanks." 

Daichi turns to walk away and whether Yamaguchi should ask or not, his curiosity gets the best of him before Daichi can get very far.

"What is he doing? Like, where does he go when he leaves like this?" he asks and Daichi stops to turn back to him. He's not looking at him in any kind of bad way, but the weight of his eyes on Yamaguchi still makes him nervous enough to back track. "Sorry, I know it's not any of my business or anything! I just--"

"Yamaguchi," Daichi interrupts with a slight chuckle. "Calm down. It's fine, he probably just went to go check his sugar," he answers casually like this explains everything. It’s exactly the way everyone always says stuff like that, as if Yamaguchi is supposed to conclude something obvious from this. 

Despite his weak nod, the look on Yamaguchi's face must say that it doesn't explain anything at all, because Daichi looks at him with confusion for a second before something like realization hits him.

"Oh crap, you guys don't even know do you?" Daichi asks, though he clearly doesn't expect an answer. "I guess, how could you know? God, I’m stupid. Well, Tanaka is diabetic, type one obviously. He leaves sometimes if he has to check his sugar or something like that. He can't really do it in the gym because Noya can't stand needles and Asahi doesn't like blood. So, he usually just steps outside." Yamaguchi nods, and this time he actually means it.

"Yeah, I guess we all kind of forgot that the first years wouldn't know," Daichi continues, "Because all of the second and third years found this out last year when Tanaka was new, so everyone is just used to it by now. And the coaches are required to know that kind of thing, but no one ever really brings it up because no one thinks they need to, I guess."

"Oh, okay," Yamaguchi says, relieved because finally everything makes sense. It's almost like a weight has been lifted, not having the question nagging at the back of his mind anymore.

God, he should've just asked sooner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I will be back tomorrow with yet another chapter. As always, thanks for reading, commenting, leaving kudos, all that stuff. I super appreciate it!


	3. The Direct Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignorance is bliss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so much later. It was a busy day for me, but here it is! This is Kageyama's chapter, hope you enjoy!

"Come on Noya, you've done it before. Practice is gonna start soon, it'll be quick," Tanaka persists a few feet to Kageyama's right.

"I know I've done it before, still," Noya trails off, trying to inch away. "Why didn't you just have nee-san do it or something?"

"Saeko wasn't here this morning. Noya, come on, please. You're the only one who knows how to do it besides me."

Kageyama has been listening to this for a few minutes and wow is he lost. He's overheard a lot of weird conversations lately, and they all seem to involve Tanaka. He's not really sure what people always seem to be talking about, and he's not sure if he's supposed to, so he mostly ignores it. Of course he's curious, but it's none of his business.

"Fine," Noya finally caves in with a sigh. "You know I always say yes anyways."

"Yes, and I love you for that," Tanaka says patting a defeated looking Noya on the back. By the time they finally agree, morning practice is pretty much starting and Kageyama finally decides to cut in.

"Hey, can't you guys just do whatever it is after practice or something?" he asks. He thought it was a decent suggestion but the look he gets from Tanaka says otherwise. 

"Oh yeah, says the guy with the _working_ pancreas," Tanaka says, putting a hand on his hip.

What does-- _oh_. 

That actually explains a lot. Every weird little thing he's questioned since starting volleyball makes so much more sense now. All the things he's heard, all the times Tanaka is late or steps out of the gym with no questions asked, little things that he just thought was everyone being weird.

"Yeah, Kageyama," Narita chimes in from his left, "Not all of us can have fully functioning endocrine systems like you." Wait, now Kageyama is confused again.

"You see? Narita gets me," Tanaka concludes.

"What?" Kageyama asks, thoroughly lost and very much missing that short lived period where he actually knew what was going on.

"Hypothyroidism," Narita says plainly. "I don't really feel like explaining it, but in the most basic terms, my metabolism is screwed up," he continues, clearly knowing that hypo...whatever he said means absolutely nothing to Kageyama.

"Oh," Kageyama says flatly, still trying to put together the conversation in his head. He must still look confused, because Kinoshita cuts in from wherever the hell he's been hiding during this whole conversation.

"Hypo _thyroid_ ism. Thyroid, as in part of your endocrine system." Nope, he's still lost. "The pancreas is _also_ part of your endocrine system. Do you get the joke now? Can we move on?"

"Tanaka, you should really just teach someone else how to do that already," Narita says, thankfully saving Kageyama from any more embarrassment and directing everyone's attention away from the horrible embarrassment he's already experiencing. 

"Seriously!" Nishinoya shouts, sounding relieved. "It's easy enough to do."

"Well sorry I don't want just anyone stabbing me with all my expensive medical equipment!" Tanaka says back, waving his arms around in the air. He heaves out a long sigh and is silent for a minute before giving in. "Fine. Noya, Kageyama let's go."

"What?" Kageyama asks, suddenly very nervous and really wishing that there was another Kageyama in the room that Tanaka is talking to instead of him. "Wait, why me?"

Tanaka lets out another sigh, more impatient this time. "I'm not gonna teach any of the third years, they're leaving next year and I'll just have to go through this again. Ennoshita is actually pretty squeamish believe it or not, and I _know_ that these two will refuse, so why ask?" he says, pointing at Narita and Kinoshita, who are already inching away. 

"You know us well," Narita says with a shrug as he slinks towards where people have begun to gather for stretches.

"Well would you look at that, practice is starting. Gotta go," Kinoshita says with an unapologetic grin, following Narita. 

"So that leaves the first years," Tanaka concludes, dragging Kageyama and Noya towards the gym doors. "There is no way in hell I'm letting Tsukishima near my body with a needle, I'm pretty sure Yamaguchi would pass out from stress or something, and Hinata is Hinata. That leaves you," he finishes matter of factly as they approach the locker room.

"Alright," Kageyama says warily. He might as well give in because it doesn't look like he's getting out of this now. It's kind of nice that Tanaka trusts him enough to let him do whatever the hell he's about to be taught, or at least more than the other first years. 

Once they're back in the locker room, he follows them to the sinks where they both begin washing their hands, so Kageyama takes that as his cue to do the same.

"So, what exactly am I supposed to be doing?" he finally asks as they walk back towards the lockers.

Tanaka opens his locker, taking a bunch of stuff out of his bag that Kageyama can't even begin to imagine the use for and putting them on a bench before taking off his shirt. "You're just putting on another one of these in a place that's kind of hard for me to reach that well myself," he says, gesturing with his head to the small sticker like thing on his hip that he currently appears to be peeling off. It's attached to a little tube that disappears somewhere behind him.

"I have to refill this and shit first, so you can just wait for a little bit," Tanaka explains vaguely as he finally gets the sticker off his skin. Kageyama would ask, but really that part doesn't seem to concern him and he's already kind of overwhelmed by all of this.

Tanaka pulls out a small device that looks like it was clipped to the inside of his shorts near the back, which Kageyama can now see is where that tubing leads. "I use a pump for my insulin, by the way, not shots. If it isn't obvious by now. This is it," he says wiggling the small machine.

Kageyama watches intently as he does the rest, refilling some little tube thing with what he assumes must be the insulin. He doesn't really need to know this part, but it's not like he has something better to be doing.

Noya is next to Tanaka sitting on the bench, getting yet another foreign object out of Tanaka's backpack that he sets on the bench beside him while he takes what looks like a new little tube sticker thing out of a package. 

"All you really need to know right now is that this thing is the inserter and it's what you use to put on the little patch sticker things," Noya explains as he holds up the small cylindrical device he got from Tanaka's backpack to show Kageyama. "And these are called infusion sets, just so you know," he continues, pointing to the 'patch sticker thing' from before. "I just call them stickers," he concludes with a shrug.

Noya hands Tanaka the new set he had unpackaged earlier and Kageyama can't help but notice that he hasn't actually looked at it the whole time. That's probably the part with the needle.

"I need to attach this to the pump and get it ready before you can put it on so just give me a second," Tanaka mumbles as he replaces the old set with the new one.

It's kind of interesting, watching Tanaka do this thing that's so foreign to Kageyama with the ease of someone who's done this for years. Noya seems just as familiar with the routine, doing his parts, now waiting patiently with the inserter in his hand.

"Alright," Tanaka finally says and Noya gestures for Kageyama to come over. Tanaka straddles the bench, facing away from Noya, and now Kageyama where he stands beside him. 

"Left or right?" Noya asks Tanaka over his shoulder. 

"Left."

"Okay, Kageyama, this is what you have to do," Noya states while he uses a little wipe on the back of Tanaka's left arm before beginning to guide him through the steps. He shows him how to put the sticker in the plastic thing, which is apparently the inserter, make sure it's in and all that, line it up. He guides him patiently all the way until the point where the needle guard comes off.

"Okay, you just press those two buttons at the same time," Noya explains, "then push down on the big button and the little sticker will come out of this thing. While you do that, I'm gonna go over here and look at this really interesting locker and pretend that there are no needles until you're done," Nishinoya continues, walking over to a locker nearby and turning away.

It's simple really. There are two buttons. Press them both at the same time. It's over in a second. No big deal. But for some reason, he can't help but be a little nervous about it. He tries to shove the feeling down, takes a deep breath.

"So do I just do it now?" Kageyama asks, trying to mask the nervousness in his voice. It comes off more like uncertainty, but that's probably a little better.

"Yeah, go for it."

So he does.

"Ow!" 

Kageyama's heart stops and Tanaka laughs. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! You did fine," he assures him, and Kageyama has to refrain from punching an upperclassman because he almost just suffered heart failure from that.

The rest isn't that hard. He takes out the needle, which Noya also looks away for, they put all the waste in the plastic bin which goes back in Tanaka's backpack until he gets home apparently, Tanaka sets up the rest of what he needs to with the pump while Noya puts everything away, and finally they can all head to practice.

He's glad he was able to help, but honestly, ignorance is bliss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the second years so much. Just a heads up, tomorrow's chapter will definitely be late. I apologize in advance. Anyways, thanks for reading, comments, kudos, etc!
> 
> (Also I really feel Narita in this chapter, getting lazy about explaining hypothyroidism is such a real thing. My god, no one knows what a dang thyroid is.)


	4. The Waiting Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s very confused to see Tanaka dragging an uneasy Nishinoya and a nervous looking Kageyama towards the gym door with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY. Yeah, I know this chapter is a day late, but my life got really hectic all at once and I got behind. Oh well. Here's Hinata's chapter, finally. Enjoy!

Weird things keep happening and Hinata has no idea why. Frankly it’s starting to bug him. 

He only noticed it today, but it seems like everyone around him is always talking about one thing or another that he doesn’t understand. It’s not anything majorly concerning, but he’s keeps hearing bits of conversations and phrases that just make no sense at all. He noticed it first when Tanaka was asking Noya to do, _something_ , but Hinata wasn’t really sure what. He tried to ignore it, but once he was listening for it, it sounded like a lot of people were saying weird things. It was confusing.

At first he thought it might have something to do with the upperclassmen, because none of the other first years seemed to know what people were talking about either, or at the very least they weren’t the ones _saying_ anything confusing or weird. He had eventually tried asking Kageyama if he knew what they were talking about, but he just yelled at Hinata for sticking his nose in other people’s business. It’s not like he was eavesdropping or anything. They were just talking loud.

That’s one of the things that makes all this even weirder. Everyone is always throwing weird phrases into their sentences casually, or loudly, or around the team in general, so it’s not like it’s some secret, right? It feels like it is. It’s a weird mixture between feeling like he’s hearing something that’s not meant for him, or being expected to know something simple that for some reason he doesn’t. Is it something he’s supposed to know? God, what if it is. Maybe if he just pretends he knows no one will notice.

But was this happening before today and he just never noticed, or is it something new? He doesn’t think it was happening before, but who knows?

His attention is drawn to somewhere nearby when Tanaka says something loudly to Kageyama that Hinata didn’t quite catch. Upon looking over, he sees that Kageyama is in something between a conversation and an argument with most of the second years. He tries to listen, but that only confuses him more. What the hell is going on today?

Before he can think about it anymore, Ukai is calling for practice to start. Hinata starts to jog over to where the coach is waiting along with everyone else. He’s a little startled when at first glance it looks like Ukai is staring at him with an expression he can’t even begin to read, but after a second he realizes he’s actually staring _past_ him. So who is he looking at, and why with that face?

Looking over his shoulder, Hinata can see Narita and Kinoshita sliding away from to group of second years and Kageyama to join the rest of the team while Tanaka counts something off on his fingers. Maybe he’s listing something? Either that or counting something. But wh--

“Hinata, you should try facing forward when you run,” a voice says as he bumps right into someone. He looks up and sees Ennoshita staring down at him with a slight grin.

“Oh, sorry! Um, I will!” Hinata manages to sputter out before directing his attention to where the team is already doing a warm up. 

He jogs a little to catch up, his eyes wandering to the source of the movement in his peripheral vision. He’s very confused to see Tanaka dragging an uneasy Nishinoya and a nervous looking Kageyama towards the gym door with him. 

Thinking back on it now, Tanaka has done that a bunch of times, leaving the gym for a little bit without saying anything, or just stepping outside for a minute for some reason. But why? And why is Hinata only questioning these things now? Well, to be fair, it is a little hard to notice someone leaving among the commotion when nobody says anything about it. Speaking of speaking, the coaches never scold Tanaka for being late or stepping out. Hinata was pretty late once, and boy, did he pay for it.

But why do they not talk to Tanaka? Does everyone just know something that Hinata doesn’t? On occasion he can remember seeing Noya leave with him, but why Kageyama, too? Hinata may not be the most observant person in the room, but he _knows_ that has never happened before. So what’s going on?

He drops the thought and looks away from the doors that are now swinging shut again in favor of focusing on the warm up, because he’s not sure how many more times he can accidentally bump into Ennoshita before he gets mad. He certainly doesn’t need to find out.

It’s not until they’re finishing the last of their stretches that Kageyama, Tanaka, and Noya wander back into the gym. A few people glance up, some don’t even notice, but no one questions anything or even looks up for more than a second. The three boys are quick to jog over, listening in on the coach’s instructions for the next drill.

Hinata inches his way towards where Kageyama is standing and watching Ukai talk.

“Hey, where’d you just go?” Hinata whispers, but Kageyama doesn’t even glance over. Maybe he was to quiet. “Hey can you hear me? Where were you guys? Kag--”

“Hinata, be quiet and listen or you’re not going to know how to do the drill, dumbass!” Kageyama harshly whispers back.

“Hey, stop talking back there!” Ukai cuts in suddenly. “Would you rather do laps?”

“No.”

“Sorry.” 

Ukai goes back to his explanation and Hinata can practically feel Kageyama’s glare burning through the side of his head. Maybe he’ll just ask him later.

 

This is so frustrating. After waiting for however long Ukai was talking, they split off into groups, and of course the one time he really wants to be put with Kageyama, they’re split up. Maybe it had something to do with the talking, or maybe the universe is just against him.

He was going to ask Kageyama where they all went because not knowing may actually be killing him, and maybe it’ll explain the other stuff too. But since he can’t ask, the wait just feels a million times longer. Maybe it would good to give Kageyama some time to cool off, but that doesn’t negate how badly Hinata wants to know.

The rest of the drills after that are no better. Either he’s nowhere near Kageyama, or the drill is too fast paced to stop and ask him about it. Now it’s obvious that it’s just the universe plotting against him today. It feels like practice is never going to end, because at this point he’s just going to have to wait until practice is over. Usually practice ends too soon, but now that he wants it to be over, it seems like it’s dragging on for days.

Hinata is about ready to tear his hair out when they’re splitting up for a practice match. He has hope for about five seconds before him and Kageyama are put on separate teams, but at least the coach said this is the last thing they’re doing today. Practice is almost over, just a little longer.

The practice match goes pretty awful. Hinata is not focused on the game, to say the very least. He’s making stupid mistakes, missing easy receives and spikes. It’s a mess. At first only Tsukishima is pointing it out, but he’s just being himself. He only knows it’s bad when Daichi and Suga start to lose their patience.

He tries to focus, but all he can think about is the clock. Right as he looks up, Tanaka is spiking the ball across the court and he doesn’t even have time to react before it whips by him, a little out of reach. He follows the ball with his eyes as it smacks onto the court right between Nishinoya and Daichi’s outstretched hands.

“Yes!” Tanaka shouts as he lands, clearly excited about landing a point right between their team’s two best receivers. He grabs the hem of his sweater and rips it off but the glory is short lived.

“Tanaka, you dumbass!” Kinoshita shouts from somewhere behind Hinata. Tanaka looks confused until Suga points out what looks like something on some kind of tube hanging down from the waistband of his shorts. Hinata sees this right as Tanaka does, and whatever is happening, it’s not anything good.

“Dammit! We just did this,” Tanaka says with a defeated slump of his shoulders, an action that for some reason Kageyama mirrors. 

“Are you alright?” Ukai asks with a focused expression.

“Yeah, just stupid,” Tanaka replies with frustration clear in his voice.

“This is why you should just keep your shirt on,” Narita chimes in from beside Ennoshita who’s facing the other way for some reason. What even just happened?

“Are you bleeding or anything?” Takeda suddenly asks from the sidelines.

“He better not be,” Asahi says with a look of horror on his face.

“Not really,” Tanaka answers, inspecting the back of his arm. “It’s just red from the glue ripping off.” 

Glue on what? Why would he be bleeding? And he said he already did something earlier, so is that where he went with Kageyama and Noya? It has to be? But he still can’t figure out what they were doing. And what the hell is that tube thing? Why would-- wait. 

“Hey, Suga?” Hinata asks slowly.

“Yeah?” 

“Is that an insulin pump?”

“Yeah, why?” Suga answers easily as a furious Tanaka drags away Kageyama who’s looking desperately at someone behind Hinata. He follows his gaze to Nishinoya, who’s shaking his head quickly at Kageyama. Looks like he’s not going to wherever the hell they’re going this time.

“Oh. I just didn’t know Tanaka was diabetic until now,” Hinata replies. “Hey where are they going anyways?” he adds before Suga can reply.

“Well after that, I’d say they’re going to put on another one of the little needle sticker whatever the hell they’re called. It’s probably in a place Tanaka can’t reach that well. He usually has Noya do it, but looks like he finally shoved that duty on someone else. Right Noya?”

“I’ve been freed!” Noya exclaims as he walks by.

God, this explains a lot. And practice isn’t even over yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so expect the last chapter on Friday rather than tomorrow because I'm very behind, but almost done with this little story nonetheless! Thanks for reading! Also as always, comments, kudos, etc. are all super appreciated.


	5. You're The Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sibling love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late. I know. I have no excuse. I was supposed to write it last night. I fell asleep at like 9. I should be asleep right now, but here I am! Anyways, here's the last chapter, hope you enjoy!

Saeko almost doesn't hear Takinoue the first time he asks as she leans over the railing to shout towards the court where Tanaka's team is currently playing a match. 

"I don't know," Shimada says to Takinoue, presumably answering the question that Saeko didn't quite catch. Well, she wasn't really paying much attention to anything but the game. "Maybe it's something with his uniform?"

"What?" she finally asks, turning away from the court so she won't get distracted again. "Who's uniform? What's happening?"

"Oh, Tanaka just keeps messing with the front of his jersey for some reason," Takinoue says, "I don't know if it's actually anything, but I just noticed that he keeps doing it," he continues with a shrug.

"And he keeps giving Keishin a thumbs up," Shimada adds with a confused look on his face.

Takinoue looks like he's about to reply again, but she interrupts before he can get another word out. "Wait, hold on. Which one is Keishin?" These two guys know the team way better than Saeko thinks she ever will. She's never been good with names, and when they go on and on about the people on the team, it's very easy for her to get lost.

"Oh, sorry. He's not on the team," Takinoue clarifies. "Ukai Keishin is the coach."

"Wait, I heard Ukai stopped coaching?" Saeko says leaning back over the railing to look for the coach. She scans the sideline until she sees two men in the coaches uniform, though she can't see which one is the coach and which one is the adviser from here. "Which one, glasses? Wouldn't Ukai be old by now though?"

"No and yes, but this is his grandson," Shimada explains with a chuckle. "We went to school with him. We were all on Karasuno's volleyball team back in the day."

"And somehow we're all back here again," Takinoue adds, leaning forward to search for the coach himself. "And from the look on our dear friend's face right now, he seems pretty skeptical about that thumbs up."

Saeko looks out and sees Tanaka giving the coach a thumbs up right before he goes back to messing with the front of his jersey. He's trying to focus on the serve that's coming towards him, but Saeko can tell that he's more worried about the infusion set under his shirt as he makes a lousy receive. If she were the coach, she'd be skeptical too because that thumbs up _is_ bullshit.

"He needs to suck it up and come off the court this rotation," Saeko says mostly to herself, earning a confused look from both the men beside her. 

"Why? Is he hurt or something?" Shimada asks looking back down at the court.

"No, but if he waits too long he's gonna have a problem," she answers, glaring at her stupid stubborn brother. Look at him, thinking he's okay. Stupid.

She looks up when she realizes that Shimada and Takinoue are both staring at her like she's grown a second head. She's confused too when she remembers that these people probably don't know about any of what she's talking about. 

"Oh, Tanaka is diabetic," she says dismissively, though she continues her explanation. Mostly for their sake, but half because she wants to rant about it. "He has a pump, and the point is that the part where the insulin goes in can start to come off when he's moving around and sweating a lot. So during games he tapes it down, but that only helps so much."

She watches as he rotates to the back line instead of swapping out for Nishinoya, and she can still see the coach watching him very closely.

"Ugh he's such an idiot! Him and his damn pride," she says in the middle of her explanation. "Sorry, anyways. The thumbs up thing is actually for the coach. The thumbs up means that he doesn't need to come off yet. When he needs to replace his tape or something like that, he gives the coach a signal to let the coach know. Then, he can get rotated out when he reaches the back line and Nishinoya comes on. That's what he _should've_ just done but he didn't because he's _stupid_ and thinks he's fine, but he won't be when the damn thing falls off his body!"

"Oh, okay. So he just comes off then rotates back in?" Shimada asks.

"Yes! He comes right back on but he still hates getting subbed out so he does this bullshit!"

"Wait, what was that?" Takinoue asks, pointing to to court. Saeko looks down to see Tanaka finally giving the coach the signal for needing to be rotated out.

"Ugh finally."

"That was the signal? So what happens now?" 

"Now, since he's in the middle of the front row, he has to wait until he gets to the back corner. He'll come off and Nishinoya will come back on, because by the time Tanaka is there, Nishinoya will be off the court again," Saeko answers, going back to watching the game instead of just her brother.

"See, next rotation he'll come off and fix whatever he needs to fix," she points out the next time they rotate. Just a little longer, and he can fix it. If he doesn't, he's going to have to put on a whole new infusion set. But he's about to be subbed out, finally.

That's when he takes one of the hardest spikes Saeko has ever seen straight to where the infusion set is.

She's practically holding he breath as she watches. He doesn't fall down or anything, thank god, but he doubles over a little bit. He'll probably be fine. It's just another volleyball, but that ball was going _fast_ , and it definitely knocked the wind out of him. 

A few people gather around, ask if he's okay, but Saeko is just watching to see if it hit him where she thinks it did. He untucks his shirt and lifts it up, and sure enough, dangling from his side is his infusion set and a few pieces of tape.

"Dammit! This is why he should've come out last rotation!" Saeko shouts.

"Why, what happened?" Shimada asks, trying to see what's happening through the small group of his team mates that were on the court when he got hit, who are now surrounding him as the coach walks over. 

"Yeah, I can't even see," Takinoue adds.

"He got hit right where his infusion set was, and it was already coming off, so obviously it fell off all the way! This wouldn't have happened if he was just smart and got switched out _earlier_ ," Saeko rants.

On the court, Saeko can see one of the other second years coming out to take Tanaka's place as Tanaka jogs away. 

"Where is he going?" Takinoue asks somewhere to her right.

"He's probably going to wherever his bag is to get all his stuff and put a new infusion set on so he can get back in the game, which he could still be in if he was smart," Saeko answers with frustration.

The game eventually starts again, but it's almost immediately that her phone rings. She checks the screen and sees that it's Tanaka calling, which is weird because it usually takes longer than this for him to put a new set on. But if he had a new set on, he'd be on the court, not calling. Maybe he needs her help? Or maybe he screwed something up?

"What did you do?" she asks before he can even say hello.

_"What? I haven't even said--"_

"Yeah, but you're calling me, so what did you screw up?" she interrupts, already making her way to the stairs.

_"My infusion set came off when I got hit and--"_

"No, it was coming off before that, but you're an idiot! What, you think I couldn't see that? Who do you--"

_"Okay, okay, yell at me later. Anyways--"_

"Don't interrupt me!" she yells into the receiver, earning her a few looks from some people in the hallway, and not just the kind of looks she's used to getting. 

_"Okay, I'm sorry but this is kind of important so would you please listen for like half a second?"_ Tanaka asks desperately from the other end.

Saeko huffs a sigh, but gives in. "Fine, what do you want?"

_"Okay, so I thought I had another infusion set but apparently I don't because I just emptied out my whole bag and it's not in here anywhere, and I don't know what to do because I don't have any more, and the other one is dangling from my side, and I have to get back in the game, and also I kind of need my pump to be on, and--"_

"Woah, woah, slow down. Chill out for a second," Saeko interrupts, partly just to make sure Tanaka remembers to actually breathe. "Where are you right now?" 

_"I'm walking--"_ Tanaka starts, but suddenly there are two Tanaka's talking and Saeko realizes that the real Tanaka is probably somewhere nearby. A distraught Tanaka turns the corner with his phone in hand and Saeko hangs up.

"You idiot," Saeko says as Tanaka realizes he's been hung up on. He looks up and she can practically feel how relieved he is from across the room.

"Thank god, do you have one with you?" he asks as he walks towards her.

"What was your plan if I said no, huh?" Saeko asks, planting a hand on her hip and glaring down the hallway at him. He stops walking and looks like he's searching for an answer, an answer he doesn't have. "You're a dumbass."

"Yes, I know. Can we please do the whole yelling at me thing later?" 

"Fine. It's in my car, let's go," she says already turning and walking the other way.

She hears him let out a sigh of relief as he jogs to catch up. "Thank you, you're the best."

"I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! Anyways, I just kinda wanted to write this for the hell of it, I wanted it to be short and sweet, and that's what I got. So, I hope you all enjoyed this little thing, and thanks so much for reading, comments, kudos, and all that!


End file.
